Do Schools Kill Creativity?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY[/youtube]
“We’ve all agreed, nonetheless, on the extraordinary capacities that children have.”
“My contention is that all kids have tremendous talent but we squander them…”
“My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”
“If you aren’t prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original…”
“If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years, all life on earth would end. If all the human beings were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years, all life on earth would flourish…” Jonas Edward Salk
“Our task is to educate their (children) whole being so they can see this future. By the way, we may not see this future but they will and our job is to make something of it.”
Tags: creativity
December 17th, 2008
I would have to agree with this statement – schools do kill creativity. I think it is because they have to teach children to conform to a norm, there is no time or resources to develop each child as an individual, the focus is more on the group.
I find that in the workplace innovation is extremely important and often it is difficult to be innovative if you are so used to behaving like everyone else – very few people have the ability to think outside of the box! Parents should encourage creativity in their children and teach them how to be creative/innovative within the norms of society.
December 17th, 2008
i totally agree…especially the schools back home!you have to wear the same uniform, same shoes, same socks, even the same hair ties! you cant answer a question in exam based on what you have learnt but rather use the EXACT same answer with the exact same words the teacher provided you, and for every word you miss you get marks deducted….i studied there until i was 14 and it took away so much from who i wanted to be, i felt like the teachers way is the only right way and even if i come up with the same idea differernt words i am a bad student, i couldnt develop my own personality….omg theere is just soo much wrong with the school system back home (pakistan, dubai etc) i wish they wouldnt change it…
nice post asma
December 17th, 2008
wish they would
: ) *
December 17th, 2008
Solace, good points. One of the areas that I wish I allowed myself more room for creativity is when I’m cooking. I’ve improved a lot alhamdulillah but I still fear messing up in a meal and doing things from scratch without a recipe. I even fear following a recipe that doesn’t get a lot of ratings. I don’t know why this fear is present 100% either.
Mariya, that does sound like a very close minded teaching approach. In the public school system here we see that they also try to force the ideas. When you open up a textbook as a child they already pre think the questions for you and I remember the teachers barely stepped outside of the box (literally, the box of the questions at the end of each chapter).
December 17th, 2008
It’s not that a school by definition (as in an institution for teaching) kills creativity, but the sorry excuse for what are today called “schools” are made to do just that.
So in reality, most of today’s “schools” are actually anti-schools. Or if one was so inclined to call what we have today “schools,” I suppose one could call them “deceit schools.”
Alhamdulilahi ‘ala kulli hal.